They've survived 2 major earthquakes in Colombia: "A sense of powerlessness

Jahir Rodr\u00edguez knew what was happening when he saw thick, dark clouds forming near his home in western\u00a0Colombia on Monday morning. Parts of his dear Pereira were crumbling.\u00a0The urban planner and former professor also knows what happens next after a powerful earthquake devastates whole communities. He sprang into action after a deadly 1999 quake in Armenia, about 30 miles away from his current home, that killed around 1,200 people. He did so again three days ago when a 7.4 magnitude earthquake\u00a0struck the same region, killing at least 281 people and trapping hundreds under debris across several states.\u00a0"You feel a sense of powerlessness," Rodr\u00edguez said as he recalled seeing glass shattering and water seeping through the cracked and fallen walls of shaken buildings."You will be here for years"Rodr\u00edguez, who is 68 and retired, learned how to respond to earthquakes after the disaster in Colombia\u0027s coffee region at the turn of the century. He gained valuable insights from a delegation of Japanese responders who had faced a deadly quake in Osaka in 1995.\u00a0"It is a mistake to think that you will be here for days or months," Rodr\u00edguez said they told him. "You will be here for years."\u00a0Rodr\u00edguez, who also assisted after a major earthquake in Talca, Chile, in 2010, is referring to the encampments forming in parks across the city, a common sight after people lose their homes to natural disasters.\u00a0In Colombia, the new government, which took over just days before the quake, is helping set up the encampments, Rodr\u00edguez said. But that tactic may be shortsighted, he said, since people will remain displaced for years and need permanent living quarters now. He also says the primary concern right now is more dire."The first is to count people, the second is to organize them where they will be placed, and the third is the reconstruction plans," he said.\u00a0Getting people to leave their uninhabitable homes is hard, Rodr\u00edguez said. He spent the day after Monday\u0027s earthquake visiting with a friend and fellow urban planner whose apartment building toppled onto others. When he arrived, Rodr\u00edguez said, his friend would not move from the site out of fear that vandals would enter the building \u2014 something that was more prevalent after the 1999 quake."People are here in front of the sidewalk, watching their house," Rodr\u00edguez said with immense sadness.\u00a0He\u0027s seeing people making meals on the side of the road, and says it\u0027s hardest to think about what will come next for them."Days and days and days, nights and nights and nights, months and months and months in a shelter waiting to be helped," he said.A blueprint for earthquake recoveryEverardo Murillo created a blueprint for long-term recovery efforts following the 1999 earthquake. Colombia\u0027s then-president, Andr\u00e9s Pastrana, tasked him with creating the fund and organization to allocate money for people who lost their homes and businesses.\u00a0Since then, he\u0027s been consulting for other governments at the behest of organizations such as the World Bank, and he recently visited Venezuela after back-to-back earthquakes devastated parts of the country. In La Guaira, the hardest-hit city, he met with the governor and other local heads, businesspeople and members of the community to help with their recovery.\u00a0All those groups are vital to solve what Murillo calls the "social engineering" issue after disasters.\u00a0"People lose the route of their life. It\u0027s the hardest thing for a human being," he said. "How do I help that family who lost everything, whose home collapsed, who lost children, and also lost their belongings inside and is now on the street?"Murillo said in the first phase of a disaster, responders must act fast. They need food, shelter and quick monetary help, along with temporary schooling for children. Then comes longer-term assistance like government handouts and loans.He likes to hire those affected directly to work on recovery efforts.\u00a0"The first thing that emerges from within a disaster victim when something like that happens is a new kind of leadership," Murillo said. "Natural leaders emerge \u2014 people who step up."Murillo said solidarity is something that can\u0027t be explained and helps responders learn from victims. He likes to pair up those who are feeling stuck and depressed about the catastrophe with those who are invigorated.\u00a0Lessons learned in a disaster\u0027s aftermathMuch of the response depends on how the governments react. Murillo, who also consulted in Haiti after its deadly 2010 earthquake, says Colombia benefits from established models and response systems.He says that in Haiti, local leaders and victims didn\u0027t understand some things he took for granted \u2014 like the need for an ID card, documentation for their home or other basic information.\u00a0"There are a number of problems in the social realms that one only discovers by going there and seeing for oneself," Murillo said.\u00a0Murillo said Colombia got out of this disaster more easily than others. He compares the dozens of fallen buildings this week to the hundreds that toppled in Venezuela.\u00a0Many structures in the area where the earthquake struck this week were built to withstand the seismic rocking that destroyed entire neighborhoods in 1999.\u00a0But even those whose homes remain are going to be affected, Murillo said. Some people may have lost businesses and don\u0027t have the resources to bring them back, and communities may lack the infrastructure to recover.That\u0027s part of the challenge for responders. There is a mix of people and problems to address all at once.Jahir Rodr\u00edguez\u0027s sister, 65-year-old Liliana Rodr\u00edguez, lost her apartment in Monday\u0027s earthquake. Looking into her eyes, he said he sees hopelessness, pain and uncertainty, a look he knows well."They are just recovering from the earth...

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